KILMARNOCK’s Alex Bruce has urged Jack Hendry to seek a Celtic Park exit in order to resurrect his stalling career. The 35-year-old defender spoke to Football Insider about Hendry having played together at Wigan and Bruce believes he needs to get playing again.
Hendry, signed from Dundee in January 2018, was sent to Australia on loan with Melbourne City. However, a knee injury forced him to go under the knife. Hendry, 25, has played 27 times for Celtic with just one appearance coming under Neil Lennon this season in the league cup.
Bruce believes that in order to kickstart his stalled career, Hendry needs to get regular game time and that might mean a move backwards – with Bruce mentioning a return to Dundee as a possibility.
“The one thing I would say to anyone who’s at a big club and not playing is there’s always lesser clubs you can go and play for.
“When you’re playing and playing games, that’s when you can be judged. When you’re sitting at a club like Celtic and you’re not playing – it’s like the lad who I was at Wigan with, Jack Hendry.
“You think it’s better to go and play for a club like Celtic and sign and you don’t play, you get your head down and all the rest of it. There’s always life, especially when you’re at a good age like he is, to go and prove yourself somewhere else. Don’t be afraid of taking a step down to come back again.
“Hendry got a decent reputation for himself, went to Celtic and hasn’t played really. To go back to a Dundee or somewhere like that to get back playing, you’re always better off doing that. I know you might like being associated with a club like Celtic but if you’re not playing, you’re no good to anybody.”
Hendry was signed by Brendan Rodgers to replace the outgoing Erik Sviatchenko but the Scottish defender has failed to break into the first team at Celtic, with lapses in concentration leaving him exposed to criticism.
Hendry still has two years remaining at Celtic and it will be interesting to see how he sees his career at Celtic shaping up considering the lack of action that he has had since arriving in Paradise back in 2018.
Incidentally, having rewatched Celtic’s 3-2 win at Ibrox in March 2018, Hendry was competent and comfortable suggesting that there was a good player within the 6ft 3 frame. However, due to the lack of game time and shaky performances in Europe, we aren’t really sure what over £2m bought us from Dundee. Hendry needs a run of games and Bruce is right, that won’t be at Celtic, what is best for Celtic and Hendry to do is find a loan club that will commit to playing him and see how he fares with game time.
